save our ticket offices

 

I want to write to you to make an appeal for one more effort in the campaign to save our ticket offices. If you haven’t already done so, please respond to the consultation, and please encourage your workmates, friends and family to do the same by sharing on WhatsApp.   There are now just 2 weeks to go before the public consultation ends on plans by the Tory government and the private train operating companies to close almost every ticket office in our stations.   The response has been overwhelming. We’ve seen a massive groundswell of public opinion that’s taken the government and the companies by surprise, forcing them to extend the consultation period.   370,000 responses have been sent to the official consultation; The Tories are in disarray with ministers criticising their own government’s plans; The campaign has made headline news repeatedly.   These plans are wildly unpopular because people understand that ticket offices are part of a public service that serves our people.   They serve the needs of older passengers and the digitally excluded. Station staff help passengers every day with the crazy mass of tickets, saving them hundreds of pounds in fares. And of course, they’re an absolute necessity for disabled people, who rely on staff to travel at all.   But the government and the train companies are determined to push their plans through and cut thousands of jobs from the railway. If they get their way, a quarter of our station staff face losing their jobs.   Behind the weasel words about ‘modernisation’ and ‘getting people from behind the glass’, this is about saving government money and feed corporate profits. It’s as simple as that.   We can still stop this.   If you haven’t already done so, please take a minute to respond to the consultation.    Every voice raised through this consultation will make it harder for the companies and the government to get their way.    On 31st August, my union will be marching on Downing Street and we’d love to see you there and you can find details below.   But the most important thing now is to register your objection, so please do that now.

Find out more about the march

Respond to the consultation

Thanks for your support.   Your sincerely,

Mick Lynch General Secretary, RMT